1. Field
The present invention relates to imaging systems and more particularly to processing sensor values in imaging systems.
2. Background
Electronic imaging systems such as digital cameras have an image sensor that contains an array of light sensors arranged in a pattern. For instance, an image sensor may include a two dimensional array of photo-detectors arranged in columns and rows. Each photo-detector is associated with a pixel in the image sensor. The photo-detectors each generate a signal indicating the intensity of light incident on the associated pixel.
A portion of the pixels in an image sensor are usually bad or defective. One method of correcting for these defective pixels determines the location of the defective pixels during the manufacturing process and stores these locations in a non-volatile memory. The pixels stored in the memory as defective pixels are then corrected at run time. However, this Bad Pixel Compensation (BPC) technique adds additional labor and production time to the manufacturing process. Additionally, this BPC technique does not compensate for the behavior of the pixels in response to imaging conditions such as sensor gain, exposure time, and operating condition.
As a result, there is a need for an effective method of detecting and correcting defective pixels.